Former EPA deputy associate administrator Jason K. Burnett announced that Vice President Dick Cheney's office censored out six pages of congressional testimony last October to cover up the health threats posed by global warming.
Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had testimony that would have detailed the direct impact of rising global temperatures on human health, including mortality and the spread of disease. But the administration feared her testimony would force it to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels.
Senate and House committees have been trying for months to get e-mail exchanges and other documents to determine the extent of political influence on government scientists, but have been rebuffed.
It's time for the EPA to come clean! Join Senator Barbara Boxer and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee: Demand that the EPA finally turn over all communications related to its findings about global warming's consequences on public health and the environment.
Dear EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson,
Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had congressional testimony last October that would have detailed the direct impact of rising global temperatures on human health, including mortality and the spread of disease.
But recently, former EPA deputy associate administrator Jason K. Burnett announced that Vice President Dick Cheney's office censored out six pages of testimony to cover up the health threats posed by global warming.
In light of Burnett's allegations, it's time to come clean.
We urge you to turn over all communications, email exchanges and documents from government scientists, the White House and the Office of the Vice President that detail the consequences of global warming on public health and the environment to congressional investigators.
For years, Vice President Dick Cheney has been driving the administration's policy on global warming, and this recent allegation appears to confirm the worst. We believe it is critical that the agency's finding that global warming poses a danger to the public -- a determination the EPA reached late last year -- be released.
We urge you to find the courage or the strength or determination to act immediately.
